Microsoft IIS Web Server and ASP.NET Forum

We are approaching capacity on a single DNN app server / DB server setup, and need to go to a load balanced/web farm approach.

Quote from our hosting service was something like $600 / month just for the load balancing service alone, another $350 / month for a clone of the existing app server.

This is such a difficult subject think about as a first-timer: keeping all your files on the server, synched in realtime with another server. Can anyone relate some experiences with this? Dotnetnuke notwithstanding, I simply need to find a tangent to follow with the whole idea of keeping two IIS servers more or less harmonized, for the lowest price possible.

Do you allow uploads of user files (Images, Documents, etc..) to the local file system or is it all stored in the database? I don't know enough about the current implementation of DNN to know this upfront anymore with all the different modules out there that can be used.

1) If it is stored in the database keeping things in sync will not be as hard. It would just leave keeping the web application files in sync between the two. (Just upload the same files to both places via ftp etc..)

2) If it is stored in the file system it means keeping the uploads in sync between two servers which will require more work. (aka a process that copies the files over two the other server when it detects that it doesn't have the file.)

[Other thoughts] Have you looked into what is causing you to need to go to a dual server setup? Is there something you can do to reduce the load on the server you currently have and still maintain its functionality?